HRM ethics assignment on strategies business managers can adopt to ensure fair treatment of their staff

Question

Task: how can business managers use HRM ethics assignment research methodologies to establish fair treatment of their staff members?

Answer

Background to the Research
The HRM ethics assignment explores the essence of leadership has increased extensively in the contemporary organizations because of various challenges managers and leaders face in the business environment.In this regard, HRM department helps in facilitating and influencing employee behaviours for accomplishing the shared objectives. It is required for improving team and individual performance by influencing the processes within an organization (Bryman, 2013). Here, HR managers can adopt various policies and strategies for managing employees to ensure diversity and inclusion in organizations.The HRM ethics assignment research shows this helps in motivating or encouraging employees for performing their tasks effectively and achieve the desired organizational objectives. Thus, HR function is essential in the organizations for ensuring positive behaviours amongst employees and managers.

HRM ethics assignment Organization Background
From the HRM ethics assignment it has been observed that Sainsbury’s was founded in the year 1869 for offering delicious and great quality food at competitive prices to the customers. The company focuses on ensuring great value food and convenient shopping both in-store and online through its brands, namely, Sainsbury’s Bank, Habitat, Argos, Nectar and Tu (Sainsbury’s, 2022).

Fig 1: Grocery Market Share

It consists of more than 600 supermarkets and 800 convenience stores. Sainsbury’s has around 171,000 colleagues that help it to achieve success in the market. Its brand Argos has been identified as the third most visited retail website in the UK. In addition the HRM ethics assignment research shows the health and sustainable diets of the company enable it to generate a positive impact on the planet.

Rationale of the Research
HRM ethics assignment Research Aim
The aim of the HRM ethics assignment research study is to analyse the impact of HR functions and rolesin reducing inequality, unfairness and discrimination at Sainsbury’s. Here, theHRM ethics assignment research study will explore the different roles of HR that are present in the company to ensure fairness, equality and respect for all employees irrespective of their social, economic and cultural backgrounds.

Research Objectives
The HRM ethics assignment research objectives that will be addressed in this dissertation are:
• To understand the importance of HR in organizations,
• To explore different functions and roles of HRpresent in organizations,
• To analyse the impact of HR department in reducing inequality, unfairness and discrimination,
• To identify suitable HR strategies for Sainsbury’s to ensure fairness and equality

Research Questions
The primary HRM ethics assignment research question of the research study is:
How can HR functions and roles reduce any inequality, unfairness and discrimination persisting in the organizational culture of Sainsbury’s?
The secondary research questions that will be answered in this dissertation are as follows:
• Why is human resource management important for organizations in enhancing performance and culture?
• What are the different roles and functions that HR managers play in their firms?
• What is the impact of effective HRM roles and functions on inequality, unfairness and discrimination existing in companies?
• Which HR functions can be suitable for Sainsbury’s in ensuring fairness, equality and respect?

Research Hypothesis
The HRM ethics assignment hypothesis statement will study the impact on HR roles and functions on reducing inequality, unfairness and discrimination at Sainsbury’s. Here, the dependent variable is the inequality, unfairness and discrimination while the independent variable is HR roles or functions Null Hypothesis (H0)= There is no impact of HR roles or functions on reducing inequality, unfairness and discrimination at Sainsbury’s.

Alternative Hypothesis (H1) = There is a significant impact of HRM strategies on reducing inequality, discrimination and unfairness at Sainsbury’s.

HRM ethics assignment Literature Review
HRM plays a significant role in enhancing the performance of the organizations. It helps the company in gaining competitive advantage by managing employees. Here, an integrated approach towards various HR practices helps in increasing commitment and motivation of the employees to provide them job satisfaction, which further improves their productivity and performance in the organization (Vermeeren, et al., 2014). HR practices help in enhancing the internal capabilities of companies by preparing them to face current or future challenges. They energize employees in working hard by building their commitment and motivation. These include recruitment, training, selection, performance appraisal and development, thereby leading to high job satisfaction, increased motivation and enhanced commitment for working willingly in the organizations (Lambaand Choudhary, 2013).

Managers often operate in a culturally diverse environment. Here, appropriate HRMstrategies can help in ensuring fairness and equality in the organizations by treating employees with respect and dignity, providing them with growth and development opportunities and improving their skills and performance (Podsiadlowski, et al., 2013). The HRM ethics assignment research shows this is ensured irrespective of the religion, race, ethnicity, colour, gender and sexual orientation of the individuals. HRM department can make sure to uphold the individual values and respect cultural differences amongst the employees in the organization, thereby reducing any unfairness or discrimination in the workplace. HRM plays an important role in maintaining internal equity and fairness in the organizations by reducing discrimination, injustice and unfairness. It enables the managers to undertake same approach for all employees while treating them with dignity and respect (Giauque, Anderfuhren-Bigetand Varone, 2013). Here, HRM ethics assignment key principles of justice, fairness, diversity and inclusion are included into the different HR processes. This helps to ensure that all members have access to information and resources, thereby undertaking fair and impartial decisions. Human resources also generate a field to make sure that employees are treated equally with respect to their working conditions, growth and development opportunities and benefits or compensation (D'Netto, et al., 2014).

Research Methodology

Fig 2: HRM ethics assignmentResearch Onion

Research paradigms
The HRM ethics assignmentresearcher will consider a positivism research paradigm for conducting this research study of analysing the impact of effective leadership on reducing inequality, unfairness and discrimination in Sainsbury’s. This is because factual knowledge will be gained through observation and other methods by collecting and interpreting the data. Positivism research paradigm will be useful for exploring the causal relationship existing between HRM strategies and functions and equality, fairness and non-discrimination with the help of hypothesis statement analysis (Rehmanand Alharthi, 2016). The HRM ethics assignmentresearcher will gain an ontological view of the world by studying this causal relationship through discrete and observable information.

HRM ethics assignmentResearch approach
A deductive HRM ethics assignment research approach will be undertaken in this research study. This approach will enable the researcher in testing the hypothesis statement involving HRM strategies and reduced unfairness, inequality and discrimination in the organization. Deductive reasoning will help in deriving conclusions from the proposition being developed with the help of the hypothesis statement (Zalaghiand Khazaei, 2016). Besides, this will also be aligned with the positivism research paradigm considered for examining the causal relationship between the two variables. Thus, deductive approach will be undertaken for measuring the relationship quantitatively and generalizing research findings from the conclusions.

Research methodology
In this HRM ethics assignment research study, both qualitative and quantitative methods will be considered for collecting relevant data about the research topic. Here, qualitative method will be used for gathering information about the HRM functions and strategies used by the managers of Sainsbury’s. On the other hand, quantitative data about the percentage of equity, fairness and anti-discrimination persistent in the organization will also be obtained.

Research strategy
Two types of HRM ethics assignmentresearch strategies will be considered for gathering both qualitative and quantitative data about the research topic. Interview strategy will be used for collecting information about the different HR roles and HRM functions present in Sainsbury’s (Best, 2014). On the other hand, survey method will be applied for collecting data about equality, fairness and non-discrimination present with the case study organization. Thus, interview method will collect qualitative data while survey strategy will gather quantitative data for the research.

Sampling framework
Interview will be conducted by involving around 10 sample participants from Sainsbury’s including both managers and employees. Here, convenience sampling method will be adopted for choosing HRM ethics assignment participants based on their availability, willingness to participate and geographical location (Levyand Lemeshow, 2013). On the other hand, the survey questionnaire will be provided to around 30 participants chosen from the company. Here, probability sampling will be considered for selecting sample participants for providing each of them equal chance of being selected in the study.

Data collection and analysis
Data will be collected with the help of interview and survey methods. Open-ended questions will be asked in the interview for gaining detailed insights about the research topic. HRM ethics assignmentSurvey questionnaire will consist of both open-ended and close-ended questions for gathering required quantitative data.

The HRM ethics assignmentdata will be analysed with the help of thematic analysis and regression analysis methods. Qualitative data obtained from interviews will be analysed through thematic analysis by identifying similar patterns from data sets, developing themes from them and reviewing the same. Furthermore, regression analysis method will estimate the relationship between the two variables by showing the correlation between them. This will be undertaken with the help of SPSS statistics for interpreting and reporting the correlation analysis.

HRM ethics assignmentValidity and reliability
Reliability will be measured by comparing different versions of the measurement by undertaking different methods of conducting the correlation analysis. On the other hand, validity will be measured with the help of Pearson’s r correlation coefficient in theHRM ethics assignment research study.

Research time plan (Gantt chart)

Conclusion
The HRM ethics assignmentresearch study aims at analysing the impact of HR roles and practices on reducing unfairness, inequality and discrimination at Sainsbury’s. For this purpose, this proposal has provided the research aims and objectives, background of research methodology and framework for conducting literature review by using existing scholarly articles. Lastly, a HRM ethics assignmentGantt Chart has been given to provide the timeline of different activities that will be undertaken for completing theHRM ethics assignment research study.

Reference List
Best, S., 2014. Understanding and doing successful research: Data collection and analysis for the social sciences. Routledge.HRM ethics assignment
Bryman, A., 2013. Leadership and organizations (RLE: Organizations). Routledge.
D'Netto, B., Shen, J., Chelliah, J. and Monga, M., 2014. Human resource diversity management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(9), pp.1243-1266.
Giauque, D., Anderfuhren-Biget, S. and Varone, F., 2013. HRM practices, intrinsic motivators, and organizational performance in the public sector. Public Personnel Management, 42(2), pp.123-150.HRM ethics assignment
Lamba, S. and Choudhary, N., 2013. Impact of HRM practices on organizational commitment of employees. International Journal of Advancements in Research & Technology, 2(4), pp.407-423.
Levy, P.S. and Lemeshow, S., 2013. Sampling of populations: methods and applications. John Wiley & Sons.HRM ethics assignment
Podsiadlowski, A., Gröschke, D., Kogler, M., Springer, C. and Van Der Zee, K., 2013. Managing a culturally diverse workforce: Diversity perspectives in organizations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), pp.159-175.
Rehman, A.A. and Alharthi, K., 2016. An introduction to research paradigms. International Journal of Educational Investigations, 3(8), pp.51-59.
Sainsbury’s, 2022. About us. [online] Available at: (Accessed 16 November 2022)HRM ethics assignment
Vermeeren, B., Steijn, B., Tummers, L., Lankhaar, M., Poerstamper, R.J. and Van Beek, S., 2014. HRM and its effect on employee, organizational and financial outcomes in health care organizations. Human resources for health, 12(1), pp.1-9.
Zalaghi, H. and Khazaei, M., 2016. The role of deductive and inductive reasoning in accounting research and standard setting. Asian Journal of Finance & Accounting, 8(1), pp.23-37.HRM ethics assignment HRM ethics assignmentAppendix

Fig 1: Number of stores of Sainsbury’s

Fig 2: Sainsbury's profits/loss in the United Kingdom (UK) 2014-2022